


Goodbye and Hello

by You_Are_Constance



Category: The Clockmaker's Daughter - Webborn/Finn
Genre: Canon Compliant, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Mentions of other characters - Freeform, No Dialogue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 22:20:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26665078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/You_Are_Constance/pseuds/You_Are_Constance
Summary: There’s a lot of things William Riley misses about being human. He never really felt like he belonged anyway, but that feeling amplified when he became a creation of clockwork. But maybe, just maybe, things really were better this way.
Relationships: William Riley/Constance Reed
Kudos: 3





	Goodbye and Hello

**Author's Note:**

> I tried creating the fandom for The Clockmaker's Daughter, but I don't really know if I did it right.  
> This is my first time posting on ao3. I've already posted this on my Tumblr @you-are-constance  
> Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or the settings

There were a lot of things William Riley missed about being human. He hadn't realized how great he had things until it all changed. He had always wanted to explore the world, or even to just get out of Spindlewood. He never felt like he belonged there, despite how welcoming the whole town was. He just wanted to leave. He felt... different from all the other people in Spindlewood. They were content with their simple, never-changing lives. Will wasn't. He wasn't quite sure why.

It could have something to do with how he was raised, his younger years.

Will's father had died when he was only four years old, leaving him with his mother as his only family. Will's father had always been a kind man, even though he wasn't exactly a genius. The man wasn't good with intellect, but he was good with people. His wisdom was beyond his years.

Will didn't remember much of his father, only a kind smile, dark curly hair like Will's own, and a few words that Will could never forget.

"Don't let people stop you from what you want, no matter who they may be," or something along those lines. Maybe Will had been too young to remember the words and phrasing, but the feeling was something that had lived in his heart since.

He tried to be true to that feeling. Maybe he didn’t always succeed, but he tried.

The only thing Will knew that he wanted was to get away from this place. He wanted to leave.

But deep down, something held him back. Something kept his feet rooted to the ground, even when it would be so simple to walk away.

Then he met her.

Constance.

He knew within just a moment that leaving Spindlewood came second. She came first. All along, it was her that he’d been waiting for.

Will didn't believe in fate. He thought everyone should choose their own path. His whole life, he wanted to get away, but right now, he was choosing to stay.

He loved her. He knew that was certain. At least, now he did. He only actually figured it out more recently.

He’d tried to tell her how he felt, but she ran before he had the chance.

Things went dark. Will felt betrayed and conflicted. Everything he knew was suddenly a lie. He didn’t know if his love was real. He didn’t know if the Constance he knew was real.

But he decided quickly, with some help from Amelia, one of his oldest friends in town, that he really did want to be with Constance, more than anything else. She was real. He knew she was, no matter what she was made of.

It was the first time Will had stood up to his mother. And look where it’d gotten him.

The wound was painful, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

No, the worst of it was saying goodbye.

When he said goodbye, he knew that it would truly be the last one. Will believed that there was some sort of life after death. He never knew what it might be, but he knew there would be one.

But not one for Constance.

He hadn’t known then what Abraham Reed was capable of.

He learned it too late.

Will woke again, Abraham having managed to bring him back, to make him like Constance. Will thought it meant that his goodbye wouldn’t have been necessary.

But she wasn’t there. Not really.

Goodbyes used to be terrible when he was human, but the pain of saying goodbye, to a friend or a loved one, as a human was nothing compared to the pain of saying them now. Goodbyes used to be “until we meet again,” even if they were separated due to death. Now, goodbyes really could be forever.

When Will ran to Constance that night, even if he didn’t know it, he was saying goodbye to his only chance at seeing his father again. He was saying goodbye to having a normal life, saying goodbye to the safety and security that came with being human.

Goodbyes were always hard, as a human, but they were even harder now. Will had said goodbye to many people over the years, his father, a friend, and since that one night, Will had said goodbye to his so many others. Amelia and Henry, and the man who became like a father to him, Abraham Reed. They had bonded over their shared loss.

Abraham never managed to fix Constance, but not for lack of trying.

Years passed. Every year the town tried to bring Constance back, and every year they failed.

Will was never patient. He was forced to wait for a lot of things, but that didn’t mean he had patience. He was learning that lesson now.

There were a lot of things William Riley missed about being human. He missed how simple so many things were, he missed his friends, he missed the feeling of belonging, even if it was small and not there often. He missed how easy saying goodbye was.

But now, over a century later, as William Riley glanced up at the still-frozen form of his one love, he knew that he didn’t wish to be human again. He didn’t wish for things to be as they were.

Yes, saying goodbye got worse, but it gave him the chance to say “hello” again.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos/comments are appreciated, just please don't swear in the comments


End file.
